After six years on Starz, the hit series Power has come to an end.
A lucky New York City audience got the chance to see the final episode with the cast and showrunner Courtney Kemp on Friday (February 7th) at the Paley Media Center. Castmembers who were in attendance included: Joseph Sikora, Michael Rainey Jr, Naturi Naughton, Shane Johnson, Mike Dopud, Larenz Tate, Rotimi and Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson who is also an executive producer of the series. Power Confidential host Terrence J was also present to moderate the post-screening Q & A with Kemp and the rest of the cast members.
The Knockturnal spoke with cast members Shane Johnson, Michael Rainey Jr, Rotimi, and Joseph Sikora on the red carpet prior to the screening. This season Sikora’s character Tommy Eagan was shown to be leaving New York and heading to the West. What might Tommy’s life on the west be like we asked to which Sikora answered, “Well I mean Tommy has nothing? I think that Tommy goes through his life and he sees that everybody that he has loved has either disowned him or is dead. So to go from that place it’s really a tough place to make it back from. So I think that the exciting part would be to watch how he would make it back if he would make it back, how far he would get and how he would play the game.” Sikora also spoke about what he enjoyed most about his character’s arc and development throughout the series saying, “What I enjoyed most maybe is watching Tommy become his own man and become his own person and become his own boss. And he became his own boss with a sense of serendipity because he had been doing all this by himself. It was only until he realized he did that he was able to take control. There is an old expression that says when we know better we do better and Tommy didn’t know better until about the end of our series.”
Power fans have come to love to hate the character of Tariq St. Patrick (played by Michael Rainey Jr) over the course of the series. Rainey told The Knockturnal, ” Man I feel like Tariq didn’t really have to wild out like he did but it’s all on the parents it’s a lack of parenthood especially from your father. For a young man, it’s definitely hard. If a young kid doesn’t have his father in his life it’s easy for him to go down the wrong path. I feel like the fathership is really important.” in relation to how he might do and see things differently compared to Tariq. Rainey added, “I feel like I wish people could kind of see why Tariq did his actions like they got more of a chance to understand why he did his actions. I feel like some people understand it but it wasn’t in their face to where a lot of people could really understand and resonant with him. So hopefully more people can see where he’s coming from for his actions.” when speaking about where he would like to see for his character’s development in the future.
This season Rotimi’s character Andre ‘Dre’ Coleman met his fiery demise. Rotimi spoke about what he might have done that could have prevented his character’s fate saying, “I would have kept driving. I would have never turned back for Ghost. I would have kept driving. He had the way out and so he was getting greedy and made the wrong choice.”
Cooper Saxe has hunted and tried to bring James St. Patrick(Ghost) down on numerous occasions which has tested his career tremendously. Shane Johnson who plays Saxe said, “I think the most exciting thing about Cooper Saxe this season is he goes off the rails. And that going from wearing the suit and being all buttoned and pulled together he’s kind of like drinking and losing his mind and spiraling out of control and he’s like a dog with a bone. It’s exciting and intense.”
Following the screening of the final episode, the cast and Kemp sat with Terrence J to discuss the ending of the show which has made their characters leave a lasting imprint on both the actors themselves and viewers. Kemp noted that there were different endings filmed with each of the seven suspects as the person who shot James St. Patrick (played by Omari Hardwick).
Series executive producer Mark Canton spoke to us about which of the characters had the most complex changes through the course of the series. “You know a lot of them, but I think maybe still Ghost for me, Tariq and of course Tasha’s also gone through a lot of changes. Tough to be that mother.”
Although the current Power series is ending there is more to come. ” Well, all I can tell you is we have an incredible cast and everyone who’s not in it wants to be in it. It’s nice to have a hit because nobody ever stops calling. So we’re very happy the first one sort of moves forward right from power and then after that, it’s a whole new part of the universe. But it’s always gonna connect because Courtney is such a great narrative voice so it will connect.” Canton said about the future of the Power universe.
The series finale of Power airs on Starz on February 9th.